Thursday, October 01, 2009

Chess Fathers and Sons (and sometimes Mom)

Chess Fathers & Sons (and sometimes Mom)

It was several years ago at tournament at Natick where Richard Kahn and myself were sitting besides a then very young Andrew Wang and his opponent. Andrew and I were diagonally across from each other. Richard and my game had a tense log jam where all pieces were vectored into the center. Then BOOM! There followed many exchanges and when the dust settled I was the exchange down but had two connected passers on the sixth rank of the d and e files and one of these guys was sure to make it untouched into the end zone: game over. My eyes caught Andrew who was staring at this frenzied mêlée when his whole body was involved in a huge smile and our eyes met. Message sent: that was really cool, and it was really cool. I realized that Andrew got great joy out of seeing a special chess moment.

Many times you hear about the stereotypical bad dads with the "Looking for Bobby Fischer" vicarious drive to make their kids world champ. This usually happens with dads that really don't understand the game or the collateral benefits and joy the game provides besides winning.

I am envious of father and sons that play competitive chess together and get the extra dimension of sharing their joy of the game together. Frank and Andrew Wang, Vlad & Max Enkin, Walter(s) Driscoll II&IV, and Joshua Haunstrup and his dad just to name a few. Shared activities like chess becomes a the medium that presents events and situations allowing feelings and communication between son and dad: mortar that forms emotional bonds.

Me and my dad shared sports. And even today, 17 years after his passing, certain situations occur and I still know and can feel what his reaction is/would be.

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31 year old wallet worn photo of two week old WarCraft champ Mike Griffin holding a Knight,
son of Mass chess Class B champ Mike Griffin.
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Once at postmortem with my opponent Doug Southall at a Wamala tournament in Lowell, we were reviewing our very complex exchange Gruenfeld game when a Chinese mother stepped in providing line after line of amazing suggestions. Clearly this women was much stronger than us and knew this variation cold!? I asked her: "It's obvious you are very good at this game why aren't you playing today?" Her response was that she was here for her son today.

Do you wish you had a chess dad, mom, or son?

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[ I, Oresick, did have that wish. My son Eric learned chess very early and very easily and so I thought I had a player in the family. But he lost interest in favor of Magic and Warcraft.

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In fact the only time I got to play in a chess tournament in Florida was when I accompanied him to a impressively large, well-run Magic tournament at Disney.

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I tried to rope him into chess - I dragged him to a simul Joel Benjamin once gave at the BU Chess Club. I said this is an opportunity to play against one of the strongest and most famous chess players in the United States. Eric seemed so bored - he couldn't wait to get out of there, but he did end up one of the last to lose against the GM. rjo]


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Please Comment

Thank You

Mike Griffin

10/01/2009

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